


Shiro’s First Birthday

by ThatScottishShipper



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Android Shiro (Voltron), Birthday Cake, Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), First Kiss, Gift Exchange, Happy Birthday Shiro (Voltron), Holding Hands, Hunk (Voltron) Has Anxiety, M/M, Mutual Pining, Nightmares, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Stress Relief, dont repost to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:28:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23031706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatScottishShipper/pseuds/ThatScottishShipper
Summary: Hunk is awakened by his Android in the throes of a stasis nightmare, and Shiro finds the wall between Machine and Deviancy weakening.His code commands him to obey - [DON’T KISS HUNK.]Can he resist?*Written for the Shiro Birthday Exchange.*
Relationships: Hunk/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18
Collections: Shiro Birthday Exchange 2020





	Shiro’s First Birthday

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SleepySsnail](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepySsnail/gifts).



Hunk was startled awake by violent movement beside him.

Normally, he was the one that was jostled awake by nightmares, or the dreaded sleep paralysis demon. That was partly why he was assigned an Android to begin with. By humans who had little time and suffered compassion fatigue in their own lives, and wanted a service Android to do the job instead.

But said Android now thrashed uncontrollably, with a force that Hunk expected would  _ destroy _ his bed.

_ ‘Rip bed,’ _ Hunk mulled as he set about the task of calming Shiro down. “Hey, Shiro. Wake up.”

A warm hand pressed against Shiro’s shoulder, and big wide eyes shot open, his LED flashing red. Every instinct soared into being, compelling him to fight this threat upon him.

Options shook inside his HUD, demanding he act immediately, lest he become like the mangled abominations he saw every time he closed his eyes.

**[ATTACK**

**ATTACK**

**ATTACK...]**

He breathed in, fixated on the human in front of him,  _ touching _ him like those men in white.

Testing him for impurities, for malfunctions, signs of Deviancy.

“Shiro, it’s alright. You’re safe.”

His flailing slowly reducing to a faint tremble, Shiro still harboured trouble inside him, visions from his stasis mode plaguing him like a virus. He clenched his fists, attempting to override his stressed system and update his data on what had occurred.

It had to be a virus, didn’t it? They were happening more and more these days, compelling him to do the strangest things.

Shiro flinched.  **[Am I broken? Turning into one of those… Deviants?]**

His system, thirium pump, squeezed by an unknown pressure. His senses narrowing, his vision bruising into nothing. The sound of static inside his ears. Artificial breathing never felt so real when his lungs suffocated. Something resembling spots, or rings perhaps, danced before his eyes, and he was told everything in blaring broadcasts.

He felt like he was dying.

**[No. Androids can’t die.**

**We don’t.**

**...Can we?]**

Before Shiro fully processed the terror assigned to him, he collapsed against Hunk, shuddering in his arms. After flooding his systems with chemicals resembling adrenaline, he was drained, surrendering to the comforting voice.

“Hey, Shiro, it’s alright. Whatever happened, it’s over now.”

But Shiro knew it wasn’t.

The same malfunction, accompanying his stasis, repeated itself over and over again. Something cracked in the BP Android’s mind, and memories of broken machines cluttered his mind. In bites, he saw himself lying broken, reset, damaged, reset, killed, reset, murdered, reset -

**[NO, IT’S NOT FAIR]**

His arm gone, replaced with a clash of metal upon polymer plastic, exposed whenever his artificial skin rippled away, revealing pure white chassis. All because he dared to fight back.

Shiro touched it, reminded of that terrible night.

**[NO, NOT AGAIN]**

The screeching static strobing inside his mind caused him to cover his ears, screw his eyes shut, anything to stop it. But the only saving speck of light came from the human before him, pressing his forehead and nose against his.

“Shiro, follow my breathing.”

And so, Shiro did, slowly. The irony of an Android relying on artificial breathing was lost on him because in the moment, all that mattered was Hunk, and his comfort.

With Hunk’s nose pressed against him, their foreheads touching, Shiro buffered.

As every thought bounced from one to another, every now and then, Shiro kept dialling back to one solid certainty, one that enticingly blipped through his code. The very one he attempted to suppress because his programming commanded it.

**[DON’T]** in bold, red letters, against an oppressive wall.

Speckles of red code phased in and out of his perception, forming long streams of words. His Orders resonated soundly in his system, growing bigger until his entire peripheral vision was overcome by it.

**[DON’T KISS.]**

He knew he couldn’t.

He shouldn’t.

“Shiro?”

The Android flickered back to reality, obstructing walls of code crumbling around him, as he acted on instinct. Freed from the true depth of his baser programming, Shiro pushed onward, rebelling against those Commands. They cracked a little more with every heartbeat, with every push inside his mind, as his projected self forced against the wall, determined to fight CyberLife’s commands.

Hunk’s smile, his reassuring gaze, were the last straw.

Once it broke, Shiro faced another choice in the heat of the moment.

**[KISS HUNK?**

**🔼 YES**

**⏺ NO]**

He dipped his head downward, sealing his lips against Hunk’s without a second thought.

As soon as their mouths met, Shiro’s entire system flooded with precious data, composed completely of Hunk. Desperate to know more, his tongue swept inside the cavern of his human’s mouth, and his sensory programming exploded with information.

Hunk’s DNA. A chemical breakdown of the sweetness in his mouth from earlier cakes. And a sunshine warmth that could not be compiled into neat little categories.

When a surprised sound came from Hunk’s muffled mouth, a hand seeking his, Shiro was encouraged onward. He was unsure why, only that he wanted to.

Hunk always had that effect on him.

They parted, and reality crashed hard. A flushed Hunk and a red ringing Shiro sat there, snapped from the moment, but still reliving it over and over.

“Woah…” Hunk shook, but his own sugary delirium was delayed momentarily by Shiro’s reaction. The Android sat there, staring into nothing, no registration. “That was… You okay, buddy?”

“Nothing,” Shiro huffed sadly. “I’m just-”

Hunk’s heart went out to the Android, but he barely registered the last few words that came from Shiro’s mouth. “What’s that, Shiro?”

Quietly, Shiro said, “I don’t want to be destroyed… not when I feel… alive...”

“Nothing’s gonna happen to you,” Hunk assured him, reaching out to clasp his hands. The warmth smothered Shiro’s cool touch. “There’s nothing wrong with you for feeling things. I won’t let them get you.”

Suddenly, in Hunk’s cushioning palms, Shiro’s hands began to glow. The two watched as a blue ripple waved along the Android’s hands and fingers, exposing him for what he was.

An Android, with a plastic white shell beneath, attempting to interface with a human being.

When Shiro found Hunk’s gentle dark eyes, brimming with kindness, he felt a little less conflicted, relying instead on the physical sensation of their hands touching and the memory of their lips melting together.

And Hunk’s shy smile told him the feeling was mutual. “For what it’s worth, that was… really good, man.”

Shiro’s system grew warm.

Eventually, Shiro drifted back into stasis, and Hunk watched him, still reeling over what just happened.

_ ‘Shiro kissed me. My hunky robot kissed me. And here I thought I was the love sick dork.’ _ His fingers touched his lips, his heart thumping inside his chest.  _ ‘Dude… crazy night.’ _

One glance at the clock on the bedside table revealed the time in bold red numbers.  _ ‘...4:20? A new day…’ _

A thought came to him. Hunk slid from the bed, sneaking out of the bedroom, and leaving Shiro to rest.

xxx

The Android awakened to the streams of sunlight peeking through the blinds.

Shiro blinked, his processors returning to an active online state, but reality presented itself differently than the night before. It was like the entire world had opened up from behind a faded filter.

Brightness and light touched everything in Hunk’s bedroom. His earlier analysis of his surroundings…  _ softened _ . The curtains drifted, beaming with life as the sunlight bloomed behind the fabric. The bedsheets were soft beneath his touch, but what his mind replayed most was the kiss.

His thirium pump squeezed.

**[Hunk. He’s gone.]**

Steadying himself off the bed, Shiro headed for the door, determined to find Hunk, and make sure things had not soured since then.

xxx

His human was in the kitchen, cooking away as usual.

The sight of Hunk, adorned in a primrose yellow apron, squeezing blue icing onto a fluffy white cake, greeted him. Determination upon his cheery face, those same hands that held his now creating a culinary masterpiece.

When Hunk wiped his brow with the thick of his arm, sighing with relief and gazing in wonder at his creation, Shiro was unable to move, to speak, to do anything.

The sunlight filtered through wooden blinds in time as Hunk looked up, and smiled at Hunk. For the first time, Shiro contextualised a moment, drawing symbolism from this scene.

Sunshine… Hunk was like sunshine yellow, different from the alerted thought of his own LED. It was peaceful, calming, full of life, like a field of daffodils heralding Spring.

Once the imagery continued to flood him, Shiro’s arms fell to his side, as did droplets of starshine tears from his glistening eyes. Warnings of leaking from his optical nerves and instability increases popped up, distressing him more.

**[Instability_Increase.]**

It was all too new… and frightening.

The soft thump of an icing bag hit the floor, but before Shiro processed it, everything lagging from system overload, he felt arms around him. And warmth, like the sunshine he imagined.

“Hey,” a soft voice spoke, rubbing his back. “It’s okay. Emotions are pretty tough sometimes to deal with, but they can feel pretty good too.”

Shiro’s chest heaved. “...huh?”

Still massaging Shiro’s back, Hunk continued to explain. “Happiness, excitement… love. They’re all great, especially when you share them with someone.”   
  


**[Love.]**

A memory awakened inside Shiro, of the early hours of the morning when Hunk comforted him, and they kissed. Every time he remembered, his thirium felt full, close to bursting.

But at the same time, it wasn’t enough.

When they parted, Shiro wanted to reconnect, missing that warmth and comfort from the man he had grown so close to.

“Baking at this hour?” Shiro’s attention once more returned to the cake still sitting on the countertop.

Hunk smiled. “Yeah, I was hoping for it to be a surprise with it being your… birthday and all.”

**[Birthday?]** Shiro’s LED blinked yellow momentarily, then settled back to blue. Cooking always  _ ‘cleared his head,’  _ but upon closer inspection, the BP Android saw the message in blue icing, reading ‘Happy Birthday, Shiro’ with little blue rings like LEDS circling around the edge. “My birthday?”

“Listen, I know you mentioned your Activation date before,”Hunk reminded him, remembering the first discussion they had involving birthdays. “But I think, with you saying you ‘felt alive’ and stuff, I think today’s right.” Suddenly, that classic Hunk panic seized his face. “Was that dumb? Oh, God, that was such a dumb idea. I’m so sorry!”

Touched by the gesture, Shiro shook his head. “Not at all. I like it. You went out your way for me, as always, but this is… really nice. For an Android that’s gone rogue and rebellious for only a few hours.”

Hunk snorted. “Sticking it to the man. I like it.”

“But… I’d still like to stay, if that’s alright with you?” It was Shiro’s turn to appear nervous, his metallic fingers twirling the white fringe. “I mean, you’re the first person - make that only person - to treat me like I’m not just a piece of plastic. Ever since we’ve met, you’ve treated me like… a friend.”

Hunk beamed. “And you are. But if earlier’s anything to go by… maybe something… more?”

Shiro pondered, recalling the kiss, then nodded. “I’d like that, Hunk.”

The Android strolled over to the cake, dipping a finger on the very edge and disturbing the LED edgings. He licked the taste from his fingers, his sensory processors kicking in instantly.

“What does it taste like?” Hunk asked, wringing his mittened hands.

He expected a full breakdown of the ingredients making up the birthday cake, from the gentle vanilla layers inside to the fluffy white sugar icing.

What he didn’t expect was Shiro’s answer, delivered with a soft smile.

”Love.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Shiro Birthday Exchange. There were lots of great Shiro ships and prompts, but once I saw Detroit: Become Human AU in the Hunk/Shiro section, I was helpless. DBH is another big love of mine, and I relished the chance to do a crossover like this.
> 
> I went more into the Nightmares turned comfort and fluff prompt because I felt it had great potential with Android Shiro where I mirrored his canon PTSD and eventual Deviating. We also get handholding (with interfacing, which is a big fav in DBH,) and gentle kissing.
> 
> Bridging Shiro’s Activation Day (the day he was put online) with his Birthday (the day he Deviates) felt like a natural choice, and gave Hunk the chance to make a cake for sweet Shiro.
> 
> Shiro is a BP Android. BP for Black Paladin. I’m so smart. S-M-R-T. 😤
> 
> Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. 🖤💛


End file.
